For too long, journalism has been a one-way street — where news outlets alone set the agenda for community conversations and priorities. Narratives and coverage often don’t meet the needs of communities of color, linguistically diverse communities, rural communities, and other historically marginalized communities. At worst, the media can do harm that has been perpetuated for decades.

As of January 2024, CMP has made 97 grants totaling $1,813,090 to strengthen service to Colorado’s communities of color, non-English speaking residents, and rural residents.

Six of these are three-year Community News Network grantees that in total have been awarded $680,000 in addition to capacity-building and sustainability support.

Colorado Media Project’s Advancing Equity in Local News grant program seeks to shift historic power dynamics, support deeper levels of trust between local journalists and the communities they serve, and build newsroom capacity for addressing inequities by working alongside communities to build a healthier, more inclusive public square in Colorado.

Priorities for the Advancing Equity grant program were identified by community members and journalists of color through the Voices Initiative, led by Colorado News Collaborative with support from Colorado Media Project since 2020:

• Support internal efforts to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Colorado newsrooms;

• Strengthen connections and build trust between Colorado newsrooms and the diverse communities they serve; and/or

• Support more diverse and inclusive civic news leadership, entrepreneurship, ownership and narratives.

If you are a funder interested in contributing to CMP’s Advancing Equity in Local News Fund, please let us know!

HISTORY AND GRANTMAKING PRIORITIES

CMP offered its first round of Informed Communities grants in early 2020, to address gaps in COVID-19 news reaching communities of color, immigrants, and other non-English speakers as the pandemic was at its height. Eight local newsrooms and two community-based groups received a total of $50,000.

In 2021 CMP provided $85,000 in grants to 10 local newsrooms serving these same communities, which were disproportionately impacted by the virus. Grants were utilized to help ensure that local residents received accurate information about how to access the vaccine, and answers to their questions to address reluctance, from trusted voices and sources of local news.

In 2022 we offered our first of three rounds of Advancing Equity grants, to directly address calls to action from The Voices Initiative:

• Support internal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) capacity-building efforts in Colorado newsrooms. When Colorado newsrooms have inclusive workplace cultures they can successfully recruit, retain and promote reporters who represent the communities they serve, and are better equipped to cover communities with the respect, nuance, and completeness they deserve. The Colorado Trust is providing funding to support DEI capacity-building in Colorado newsrooms aimed at creating inclusive workplace cultures. Project examples: DEI training for newsroom leaders and reporters; content audits or projects to examine trends in sourcing, framing and/or language; leadership development for journalists of color or representing diverse perspectives or abilities; and more.

• Strengthen connections and build trust between Colorado newsrooms and the diverse communities they serve. Local newsrooms can be hubs for trusted civic news, but building and sustaining that trust requires strong, ongoing, two-way connections between newsrooms and the local community members they serve, especially with communities of color and others whose perspectives and stories have historically been left out of or distorted by coverage. Funding will support newsrooms and community members in developing new projects and durable connections that help meet community needs and amplify diverse perspectives. Project examples: Community engagement or reporting projects co-designed by newsrooms and community groups; support for public accountability boards that provide ongoing and actionable community feedback to newsrooms; systemic approaches to connect newsrooms with expert sources, storytellers and collaborators from diverse communities; and more.

• Support more diverse and inclusive civic news leadership, entrepreneurship, ownership and narratives. Colorado’s current local journalism workforce is overwhelmingly white and concentrated in the Front Range, which narrows the range of issues and voices amplified in our state. When Coloradans read, see and hear about concerns, struggles, triumphs and perspectives from neighbors and families not like their own, it can build common understanding and point to solutions. Funding will support projects that advance equity and shift narratives through projects developed by and for communities of color, rural communities, and other historically marginalized groups. Project examples: Capacity-building that develops media leadership, entrepreneurship, storytelling or reporting skills among journalists, content creators and residents of color, low-income residents, or those from rural or other underserved communities; support for media ownership transitions, innovations or growth that significantly impact communities of color, rural or other underserved communities; editorial projects led by and for those whose stories are not being told; and more.